Tuesday 29 June 2004 20.23 EDT
First published on Tuesday 29 June 2004 20.23 EDT

Nigel Tyrell's job is to make sure the council estates in Lewisham, south London, are up to scratch. This means making sure rubbish is collected on time, pathways are in good condition and - more recently - that the wireless network is up and running.

The Winslade estate was the first council estate in the country to go wireless, with the launch of Winslade Online in June 2003. A year on, more than 500 residents in the council estate and adjacent sheltered housing block have free, high-speed internet access - and their own community intranet.

The project came about after Lewisham announced a Connected Community initiative promoting the benefits of IT to local residents. Tyrell's team felt it was ideally placed to deliver new technology to the estates where it worked, and bid for £250,000 in funding from the council's housing capital programme to build a high-speed community network.

Additional funding for training and equipment has been provided through the government's New Deal for Communities programme.

"Lewisham is across the river from Canary Wharf where this technology is commonplace, and it really highlighted the divide between what's available to businesses and what's available in communities like this," says Tyrell.

Once funding was approved, the council quickly realised that wireless technology offered greater value and flexibility than a wired network. "We knew that the finance wasn't enough to cable the entire estate, and we couldn't go back a year later for more money to dig in more cables," says Tyrell.

"With wireless, we can potentially expand the network very quickly for very little additional cost."

Before investing in any technology, Lewisham council knocked on doors at the estate, and invited people to a demonstration of Wi-Fi technology. This type of education is vital for citizens who may have never used a computer, Tyrell explains.

"Once we showed people what they could do, downloading music, helping kids with their homework or whatever, they got quite excited. But that social element is far more challenging than any of the technology."

Residents of the estate can access the Wi-Fi network from their homes using a wireless network card provided by the council. Each card is registered, and users have to sign up to terms and conditions before using the network.

The council takes a relatively light-handed approach to surveillance so as to encourage adoption. "We didn't want to scare people off with a load of Big Brother surveillance stuff," says Tyrell. "Besides, in local government, if you try and deal with these issues in advance, nothing is ever done. We wanted to get the service up and running and then try to answer those questions."

Maintaining the network has been surprisingly easy, and feedback from residents has been extremely positive. In particular, lone parents feel that the network puts their children on a par with middle-class students who can afford broadband internet access to help with homework, Tyrell says.

The council also benefited from the experience of using Wi-Fi at Winslade. Tyrell's most recent project has been to create a Wi-Fi network at the council tip in Deptford.

"The collectors enter details of any missed collections or new bins needed onto pocket PCs, and the information is automatically uploaded to a database when they drive into the tip," says Tyrell.

"It has completely eliminated the need for paper reports, and it's something we'd never have done before the Winslade project. It's been a great learning curve."